Burma bans unworkable, says Fischer (r)

Subject: Burma bans unworkable, says Fischer.
Burma bans unworkable, says Fischer
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The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tim Fischer, has ruled out
Australian support for Western economic sanctions against Burma, despite
worsening political repression in the country.
Mr Fischer said the Australian Government would encourage an
improved human rights situation in Burma but it believed sanctions were
unworkable.
"Sanctions will never work with regard to Burma," Mr Fischer said
during a stopover in Singapore on his way to India. He said Burma's long
coastline and land borders would make it easy to circumvent sanctions.
"They are not practical with regard to the Burma situation."
The Burmese democracy leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, has repeatly
backed calls for sanctions againsts the military regime, which refused to
accept the landslide 1990 election victory of her National League for
Democracy and kept her under house arrest for six years.
The US and the European Union - which recently imposed tough visa
curbs on Burma - have warned that they are prepared to impose trade and
investment bans if the situation deteriorates further.
Mr Fischer's stand came as police and plainclothes military
intelligence agents blocked hundreds of supporters from gathering outside
Ms Suu Kyi's Rangoon house for the sixth consecutive weekend.
But in defiance of a ban on the gatherings which she has held
every weekend since her release from detention in July last year, Ms Suu
Kyi was driven from her house, through police lines, to meet some of the
crowd. Encouraged by wild chanting, the Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke
briefly to more than 200 supporters who gathered outside a nearby hotel.
Ms Suu Kyi urged the crowd to maintain discipline in the face of
the military crackdown and praised the Burmese people for continuing to
stand behind her. "I never ignore the people's support. I know the people
are behind me and I thank you for your blessing."
[By MARK BAKER, South-East Asia correspondent, Bangkok, Sunday,
3 November 1996]
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